


it's not the word "i love you"

by aetherae



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Community: 31_days, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 16:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4795001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aetherae/pseuds/aetherae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Storybooks might not have everything down right, but some things at least, Estellise thinks they do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's not the word "i love you"

**Author's Note:**

> x-posted from tumblr, no edits/changes. (although i considered changing the title to something grammatically correct, but it's a lyric from a song, not my problem man!!) this probably could’ve turned out better, weh… but regardless of the quality, i don’t write as much flynn/estelle as i should tbh. i need to write more!! also i totally do not remember what the middle quarter in vesperia is called i just went with what google gave me.

> **4\. kiss her true love**

Over the years, Estellise has found that despite being entertaining, most novels involving royalty are very, very inaccurate.

There are very few magic curses involved, for one, and in general the princesses of those novels often have far more time than she can imagine any noble having. Longingly staring out the window, picking flower petals to decide their feelings, making a wish to a shining star at night—where do they have time for that? With all the lessons and meetings she has to sit through, the training and dress-measuring, Estellise only wishes she had that much time for herself. It paints a pretty heroine, but it’s so far removed from her reality that she often finds princess heroines the most difficult to relate to.

The knights, on the other hand, are much more like their real life counterparts—or one of them, at the very least.

Just like the knights in books, Flynn kneels before her, takes her gloved hand and presses a kiss to it as greeting. He always offers his arm when accompanying her and often fusses over her safety and well-being much more than he really needs to.

But a little unlike the storybook knights, he listens to her, _really_ listens to her, in a way no one else in the castle has ever done for her before. He’ll laugh when she mentions something funny, even get mad on her behalf when he feels that one of the councilmen went too far in saying something. Estellise is used to having attention from the Council or other nobles, but Flynn will hang on every word she says, patiently waiting for her to continue. It’s thrilling in a way she can’t describe.

For all her books though, she’s sure that loveliest story she’s ever heard was one from Flynn himself. He’ll tell her about his life in the Lower Quarter to here in the castle and everything in between. She’s heard about how the market in the Lower Quarter has the freshest vegetables he’s ever seen in the city, how you can always weasel a discount from one specific eatery in the Public Quarter if you come in at the right time. She’s heard about the friend who never seems to stop going to jail, or the kind old man who’s so used to fixing a broken fountain he doesn’t even mind it no matter how much he complains. When he tells her about the people and places she’s sure she’ll never see for herself, it almost makes her believe fairytale magic is real.

Those books often mention how true love saves everyone at the end of the day, how the princess and her knight will share a kiss before living happily ever after. Estellise has no way of knowing if that’s real or not. But when she’s with Flynn, she thinks she understands what having “butterflies in your stomach” means well enough.


End file.
